Insecure, Inept, Incompetant and Inferior
by coldgravy
Summary: A more canon take on a Primeval fic, and a dedicated Jecker. Contains some bad language, violence and stuff only suited for ages 15 and up. After seriously messing up a mission, Jess loses faith in herself, her life, and her crush on Becker. Jess begins to gain weight, isn't as focused and attentive while at work, and is completely depressed, and only Becker can change this.
1. Prologue: Ready for Deployment

**I've been working on lots of Skyrim stuff recently, and I still am, but it's been a while since I've done any Primeval things. I've only done The Adventures of the Primeval Kids, but that was just totally non-canon, and was a successor to an adorable Primeval fanfiction that I read. This one is a little bit more canon; there aren't really any ridiculous scenes, but it's... well... not like a true Primeval episode, but I'm going to come as close as I can to making it like a realistic episode.**

…

Another... successful mission for the ARC crew. Only one soldier was killed by the vicious cave bear that had arrived through an anomaly immediately following the triumphant destruction of New Dawn, which could not have been achieved without Philip Burton's noble sacrifice. The tragedy was softened by Abby Maitland's proposal to her long-time friend and partner Connor Temple, and both of them were completely thrilled about being married. The wedding would be within the month, so hopefully there would be less anomalies. The last thing the Temples would need would be to have a raptor butchering all of the guests and devouring the wedding planner, just like what had happened at Jenny Miller's wedding, except with dinosaurs instead of prehistoric hyenas.

Although Connor, Abby, and Captain Hilary J. Becker missed their dear friend and first team leader, Nick Cutter, they did have to admit that this new ARC team was running things smoothly. With the EMDs, there was no risk whatsoever with opening fire on prehistoric creatures and changing the timeline, so that resulted in significantly less casualties. The newest team leader, Matt Anderson, was a very intelligent man, and he could identify just about any prehistoric creature almost instantly. The anomaly locking device Connor had invented prior to Cutter's death at the gun of his insane wife Helen was still working fine, so things hadn't really changed in that department. James Lester was still as cynical as ever, though deep down he really did care about the feelings of his long-term crew members. When Abby was in tears when Burton threatened to exterminate the prehistoric creatures in the Menagerie that were never returned to their own time periods, Lester managed to use his sharp speech skills to persuade Philip and convince him that he would be forever shunned if he was discovered to be a "dinosaur killer". Maitland was elated by this, and stated that Lester was quite nice, but his excuse was that one of the creatures in the Menagerie, a Columbian Mammoth, had saved his life from a Future Predator, and, in Lester's words, "it would be rather rude to not return the favor".

Of course, the main source of the team's effectiveness was young field coordinator Jessica "Jess" Parker, who gave constant status updates and was highly skilled at overriding security systems and such, despite being only 19 years old. Jess was a bubbly, extroverted girl, and she was very emotional, the complete opposite of Lester. She and Connor both were tech geeks, Abby and Jess had a pretty strong bond, and Matt was hired roughly the same time as her, so they got a lot of time to get to know each other.

The only surviving member of the previous ARC team, Becker, was secretly the object of Jess's affections. Jess was very friendly and social, but at the same time she was fearful, and Becker, who not only blasted dinosaurs and future creatures on a daily basis and enjoyed it, was devilishly handsome and... sexy. He also had terrific hair. Jess always got excited whenever she and Becker were together, but deep down she sort of wished that he understood how she really felt about him. But how could she do this if he was out in the heat of battle, and she was sitting at a large computer station?

The next day, Jess realized the answer: to just go on a mission, one mission. Ideally, she could take down one creature and earn Becker's respect, but perhaps the most difficult step would be convincing her boss to let her leave her post and join Becker, Connor, Abby and Matt in the next creature containment mission. Jess conveniently located Lester practically the moment she stepped into the ARC.

"Uh, Mr. Lester, sir?" Jess asked.

"What is it, Parker?" Lester sighed, slowly rolling around to see what Jess wanted from him _this _time.

"Do, uh, do you think that when there's another creature incursion, that I could... join Becker on the field?"

"Jess, take offense to this if you'd like, but I just don't really think that... dealing with the creatures directly is the best thing for you", said Lester. "When I gave you that 'touching' motivational speech a few days ago, I wasn't kidding, believe it or not. Your job is to help the professionals deal with the creatures, and that is what you'll be doing until the day that these damn anomalies stop appearing."

"Sir, if it means splicing this month's pay in half, I'm willing to go out there and prove myself to Becker- I mean, Becker, Abby, Matt and Connor", Jess corrected, trying to avoid Lester finding out of her real intention.

"Hm", Lester grunted, "I don't really think I've worked with somebody who was willing to drop their pay in favor of death, but if you want to get torn to shreds by a predator, then I'm not going to hold you back. I guess that I'll be filling in for you..."

"Thanks, sir", Jess smiled, though Lester remained as indifferent and antisocial as ever.

…

A wide smile morphed on Jess's adorable, cheeky face when she heard the anomaly alert alarm blaring, and she came close to arousal when she heard Becker and the rest of the team sprinting down the hall. "Jess, what do we have?" Connor asked.

"Actually, Connor", Lester announced, "_I'm_ coordinating this time around. Jess is going with you."

A slack-jawed stare struck Becker in the face. "What?"

"You might've been deafened by those alarms, but Jess is going to be joining you", Lester cynically replied. Jess gave Becker a doe-eyed look, and eventually he caved in. "Alright, Jess, you can come with us, but you're only going to be wielding one of the ultra-compact EMDs, not a large rifle, and you'll be staying at the very back the whole time; is that clear?"

"Okay", Jess smiled. Even if Becker was bossing her around, Jess still enjoyed it more than anything.

"Alright, boys and girls", Lester announced, "We have an incursion in... McCurdy's Video Arcade. Grab your gear and sent that creature back into the anomaly with its tail between its legs."

"Yes sir", Becker nodded, before following the rest of the team into the armory to gear up and go into battle against whatever beast was threatening the lives of innocent, nerdy, virgin video gamers.

…

A stereotype gamer was involved in an arcade-terminal Mario game, which translates as a stereotypical Italian pizza boy/plumber hopping around and crushing turtles to a bloody pulp. Right when he was about to enter his initials on the scoreboard, the power went out, which made him and the other dateless nerds howl in frustration. The particular Mario fan was the only one who noticed the glowing light from the darkest corner of the arcade, as well as the humming that the anomaly made.

From all of the howling and shouting, another howl echoed through the powerless room, and it wasn't one of the portly geeks. It was from an animal. A wolf.

All of the geeks began to breath heavily and cower nervously as the floating portal began to send a long, furry arm with bony fingers and black harpoon-like claws through, followed by a long, ferocious snout with exposed fangs and a nose as black as the darkness shrouding it. Everyone screamed as a horrifying, monstrous bipedal wolfman emerged from the otherworldly portal. The wolf had all black eyes with little touches of white, and it was absolutely frightening. Interestingly enough, the wolf creature wasn't attacking anybody, though it sort of wandered around, sniffing and snarling.

Finally, Mario lost his cool and broke into a sprint out of the video arcade, flailing his arms around in the air as his throat grew sore from shrieking. The wolf roared in excitement, and gave chase on its hind legs. The gamer was screaming loudly as the mythical beast chased him out into the streets, where, ironically enough, he was not killed by the wolf, but rather struck by a car. As soon as the woman saw what was after the man she just hit, she floored it, and loudly crushed the body in her desperate attempt to flee from the monster.

The wolf howled victoriously as it was joined by several more wolves, who began ravenously devouring the dead man. The pack was going to have some very good hunting in the streets of London.

…

**I'm sort of proud of a bunch of things in this. For a prologue, this is shaping out quite nicely, and it was satisfying to basically create a Primeval scenario. A unique creature in a unique setting. During its run, Primeval has been in just about every modern day, contempary location: subways, the Forest of Dean, a swimming pool, a reservoir, a football field, a sewer system, construction sites, a mall, an amusement park, a scrapyard, a hospital, and just about any other place you could imagine. I'm pretty sure that there must be a video game arcade somewhere in London, but with these current-generation consoles, they're somewhat rare.**

**The future wolf is my creation (watch as somebody else informs me that they had thought of it parallel to me), and it is... well, the future descendant of a wolf. It is very fast, is excited by fast movement, and its stance and appearance are what inspired old werewolf legends.**


	2. Feeling Worthless

**So, we now have the future evolution of the wolf- make that 4 future evolutions of the wolf- running through London. Who you gonna call?**

**Also, once you're done reading, please take .5 seconds of your time to review and favorite. Tell me if you like this, what you like about it, what you don't like about it, and if I should do more Primeval fanfics like this. I want praise and critique, just please don't be excessively vulgar and hateful.**

**Like a som-bo-deee! I make a reference to the funniest fictional Asian on the Internet: OwnagePranks's Buk Lau, when Jess orders Chinese. I should probably say that, as much as I wish I did, I do not own Primeval, its characters, OwnagePranks, their characters, and Asians. **

…

From the ARC, it only took Becker, Abby, Connor and Matt under 15 minutes to drive to the site of the anomaly, as well as the gruesome roadkill that resulted from it. Becker had two squads of men in other cars, and he was riding shotgun alongside Matt. Unfortunately, because the vehicle only had four seats, Jess had to ride in the back with all of the crates, which were getting shaken around by Matt's reckless driving.

The ARC crew screeched to a stop in the parking lot, where they came across the mutilated body of the video gamer who had not been killed by the creature directly, but had been chased out and unintentionally ran over. The body had basically been steamrolled, and there was a lake of blood with small traces of oil in it. This proved to be somewhat important, because the blood served as inking for footprint. Canine footprints.

"So, what do we have here, Abby?" Matt asked, kneeling down to examine the paw prints.

"Definitely canine", said Abby, studying the revolting, splattered carcass.

"Could be those _Hyaenodons_", remarked Connor.

"No, their paw prints were just bigger", Abby replied. "And there are a plethora of tracks going around here, see?"

Becker turned to look at Jess, who was as green as a frog. "Jess, you okay?"

Jess swallowed nervously, trying to avoid puking all over her dream boyfriend. "I-I'm fine..."

"Any ideas, any possible courses of action we should take?" Matt asked.

"I... I don't know... I'm just not used to this", Jess gagged. "I want to stay, but I've never really seen a dead body, nor one as badly torn apart and crushed as this one. I, I know that we should follow the tracks."

"_It's her first field mission_", Abby whispered to Becker, since she felt that he'd have some sort of rude remark, "_So don't say anything sarcastic or demoralizing._"

"Good idea, Jess", Becker said, going along with Abby's request with little sincerity. Jess smiled and blushed, not realizing that Becker didn't really mean it.

"Set your EMDs to medium-voltage", Matt ordered. "These things aren't _Tyrannosauruses_, so you shouldn't have to just blast them apart with maximum firepower. Unless this is all history's worst practical joke, then we're dealing with a wolf, likely more than one."

"Actually, Matt", said Abby, "Are we sure that these aren't just like, wolves that escaped a local zoo or something?"

"No, no, no, no, this damage could not have been done by regular canines. This is either some species of wolf from the fossil record, or a highly-evolved future version of a wolf. Either way, they travel in packs, so be on the lookout", Matt explained.

…

"The tracks lead here", said Abby as she and the others found themselves outside of a warehouse. "The shutters and such are sealed, but the side door is unlocked. But it was latched, so I'm not sure if the door was opened and they shut it, or-"

"Oh my God", said Connor, taking a dramatic pause. "These wolves must be from the future."

"And what exactly makes you so sure that they are?" asked Abby.

"Because, think about it, Abby. Those predators we've encountered numerous times, they're smarter than us. And those mer creatures that kidnapped you, they were fairly smart, too. My point is, that modern day wolves are highly intelligent, too, so there is a chance that they might have become so much smarter."

"Also", Matt added, "Did you notice that there were trails of tracks, but there were less tracks? These things might be bipedal, and if they're smart enough, they might have figured out how to open doors."

Jess, unfortunately, failed to pay attention to when Abby said that the door was unlocked. Without this detail in mind, Jess tried to impress Becker. "Stand back, guys", Jess smiled, as if she had no clue of what the hell she was doing, "I'm going to, uh, breach the lock."

Jess began charging up her EMD handgun, and the louder the priming noise grew, the wider everybody's eyes grew. "Jess! NO!" Connor shouted, before a loud, quick shock blast struck the lock and dented it. The dent was so powerful that it broke the lock, and sent the door flying open, nearly whamming Connor straight in the face.

"Jess, what the 'ell are you thinking?!" Becker asked angrily in a hushed voice. "You've more than likely alerted all of those predators of our position, and they're either running off or planning an ambush!"

Noticing Jess frown and hang her head low, Matt decided to break the ice. "Alright, lights on", Matt ordered. "Move in carefully, and listen for any unusual noises."

The colossal warehouse was somewhat clustered by forklifts, shipping containers and crates, but its immense size made Jess feel two inches tall. "Becker, where are your men?" Matt asked.

"They're going down to the arcade to close the anomaly", said Becker, systematically scanning every corner of the warehouse.

Jess was shaking nervously, and was ready to squeeze the trigger and snap it off. She didn't turn her light on, because she didn't know how, and she didn't ask for help because she feared that Becker would think even less of her. Jess walked around carefully before she felt her shoe step into something damp and squishy. Jess was beginning to quake in fear, as she already had a hunch of what she had treaded into. Abby heard Jess began to sniffle nervously, and when she shone her light into what Jess had walked onto, Jess shrieked at the top of her lungs, which made everybody jump.

"Ugh, he's been torn to pieces", Becker remarked, tapping the mutilated construction worker with his boot.

Matt bent down to sniff. "It was a recent kill, too. The wolves must have killed this lad maybe 15 minutes ago, 20 at most."

The petrifying howls echoed through the dark warehouse, which made Jess yelp and duck down on the floor in fear, while the four veterans quickly spun around and surveyed the black space for anything tall, fast and furry. "Jess!" Becker snapped, "Are you _trying _to get us all killed? Just- just stay back and let us handle this. Let us know if you see anything."

"I'm going to light a flare", said Connor. Connor lit said flare and tossed it ahead of them, giving them a small around of flickering, sparking red light. Finally, contact was made when Connor noticed a moving displacement approaching from the darkness into the light of the combat flare. Everyone's eyes widened as a large, ferocious wolf-like predator that stood a foot higher than Becker on two legs carefully walked up to them, its eyes reflecting the red flare light as it snarled and hissed, baring its fangs at the bizarre hominids.

"Don't... make any sudden movements", Matt said in a quiet voice. "If these are similar to modern wolves, then they'll be excited by fast motion."

Becker triumphantly stared down the wolfman, who licked its chops and examined the fearless soldier, to determine whether it would be good prey or not. Matt also had his usual, unafraid look on his face, so the wolf's penetrating glare had minimal effect on the man from the apocalyptic future.

After assessing and determining whether the first two humans were good-looking eats, the wolf howled, which made everybody slightly jump back. Another albino wolf beast arrived a few moments later.

"Dinner for two?" Becker quietly commented at the second wolf.

The two wolves looked at each other with otherworldly look, before the quivering, shaking little Jess, who had tears full of fear rolling down her cheeks and splashing into the chunky blood of the slaughtered construction worker. This human looked like potential prey, even more startled than the Vale Deer that the Future Wolves hunted back in their future. The wolves approached Jess, who was one step away from browning her pants. The menacing albino, who appeared to be the pack leader, arched his snout and viciously snarled at Jess, who was frantically looking around. Finally, Jess lost her cool, and bopped one of the wolves on the nose before breaking into a sprint away from the lycanthropic canines, dropping her EMD pistol in the process. The pair of wolves howled in excitement as they ran after the terrified Jess. "JESS!" Abby shouted. Becker and Connor ran after the two wolves while Matt desperately tried to raise Lester.

"_Matt, what do you have to report?_" Lester asked.

"We are in a warehouse near a shipping port", Matt said as he and Abby gave pursuit of Becker, Connor, Jess and the two Future Wolves. "Currently we're dealing with two werewolf-like creatures, possibly more."

"Are they American?" Lester cynically remarked.

"Maybe, but right now, they're going after Jess. We've got to go after her!"

…

Jess leapt through an open doorway into a tunnel that lead from one bay to the other, and slammed the door as the hungry wolves bashed up against it, causing it to dent ever so slowly. "Help me!" Jess shrieked. Jess looked down at the next door, and made a bolt for the door, which was thankfully open. The alpha male and its subordinate finished smashing through the metal door the moment Jess closed the second one, and immediately began banging up against the second door in their frenzied attempt to devour her and make her screams of pain and mutilation echo for miles. Jess cried out loud when she realized that she had idiotically dropped her gun, meaning that she now had no way to protect herself. And if Matt was correct, then there were more werewolves in the dark warehouse.

Jess closed her eyes and whimpered when she heard a low growl emerge from the darkness, directly in front of her. Jess could hear and feel the wolf breathing into her ear, but right before it could make a move, Jess heard Abby shout, "HEY!"

The Future Wolf turned to see Abby, who had her pistol and Jess's, dual-wielding them and aiming them at Jess's attacker with the lights and laser targeting systems on. The wolf charged Abby, who fired one shot-two shot, one-shot, two-shot EMD blasts from each gun at the large wolf creature, who howled in pain as each shot struck its muscular structure and crippled it.

"Abby Maitland", Abby smiled, "Dinosaur slayer, gunslinger."

"Thanks, Abby", Jess sighed in relief, rushing up to embrace Abby. Jess's relief was immediately erased when she saw Becker, Matt and Connor come around the corner. Becker had his arms crossed and an angry look on his face. Matt had a look of concern on his face, but it wasn't as hateful. Connor had a reflective appearance, too.

"Jess", Becker said, "Have you any idea how close you came to being _killed?! _When Matt or I say something, _listen_. Run off like that again, and I don't know if I'd be able to save you. You clearly do not belong on the field."

Jess slowly started crying, and everybody but Becker had looks of remorse on their faces. Abby hugged Jess, and angrily glared up at the Captain.

Before any more feelings could be hurt, Matt and Connor decided to break the silence. "Alright, we've got one of these things down", said Matt, nodding to Abby, "Becker, come with me. We need to go take down the rest of them. Connor, take the keys and bring this guy back to the anomaly."

"Right", Connor said, understandably disappointed that he had to drive a live werewolf all the way to the anomaly.

…

Abby had understood Matt's nod as a request to either bring Jess back to the ARC or back to her flat, where she and Connor had resided following their return from the Cretaceous era. Jess, who was still in a state of shock, was escorted by Abby into the passenger seat of her vehicle, and phoned Lester. "Lester, this is Abby", Abby reported.

"_Ah, good_", Lester replied. "_So did you stop the American Werewolves in London?_"

"Becker, Matt and Connor are taking care of the rest."

"_Then what are _you _doing, other than chatting on the telly?_"

"Jess got attacked by one of the 'American Werewolves'", Abby said. "I'm bringing Jess back to her flat. And Lester, as much as you seemingly love to, this isn't the time to say something ugly."

"Very well", Lester sighed.

"Okay, Jess", Abby smiled, rubbing Jess's puffy little reddened cheeks, "We're here. I'll see you at work tomorrow, alright? If you need anything, give Connor or me a call."

"Thanks", Jess replied, coughing and wiping one of her tears away. Jess took the elevator up to her floor, since no Precambrian fog worms would try and suck her head off, and turned the key into her nice little flat with large windows that gave her visuals of virtually everything in London, except the ARC, because it was located on a different side of the building. Whenever Jess was invited over by her neighbor, Tyrone, she was able to faintly see the ARC, which was sort of cool. Jess plopped down on her green recliner and sighed, severely disappointed and feeling hopeless, because she completely botched up her one chance to impress Becker with her "amazing commando skills", which were non-existent, because she was stupid. Jess turned on the TV, and flipped through several channels: sports shows, newscasts, cartoons, a science-fiction movie... nothing even remotely worth watching. Before shutting off a rerun of "The Office", Jess saw an advertisement for a Chinese restaurant, "Buk Lau's Chinese Take-out and Bring-in". Jess was beginning to press the "off" button on the remote, but she felt her stomach gnaw at her, almost as if it were pleading her to not switch off the television. Jess caved in to her growling gut, and quickly took a picture of the phone number, since there wasn't a pen visible.

"_Herro, this is A-Buk-Lau, how may I help you today?_" asked a person that sounded of Vietnamese descent.

"Um, hello", said Jess, since she wasn't too good at ordering fast food, "Can I make one order for delivery, please?"

…

Thirty minutes later, the food (mostly stereotypical Chinese or Japanese cuisine) arrived: chicken lo-mein, an orange chicken, various noodles, rice, two fortune cookies, egg rolls, sushi, a large Diet Dr. Pepper. Jess absolutely loved Chinese food, and Asians in general. Jess paid the delivery boy the $17.95 she owed him, and sat back down with her food. Jess's tradition with ordering Chinese was that she'd open her fortune cookie first, so Jess dug through the bag and pulled out one of the cookies. Jess snapped it open and read the fortune:

_The fortune you seek is in another cookie._

Jess put off eating the cookie before breaking the other one and seeing what it said.

_Love will not show itself so soon. Keep going. Keep trying._

This fortune was demoralizing. Jess only paid attention to the first sentence, and once she saw what her brain wanted her to see, she collapsed.

Jess wept for about ten minutes, before pulling herself together. Her eyes fell onto the food, which she wouldn't want to get cold, and she picked up the orange chicken. Jess had a knife and fork, and she delicately cut off a piece of chicken and brought it up to her mouth. Jess's eyes widened in delight the moment her taste buds came into contact with the heavenly chicken. It felt like she was literally tasting the rainbow, combined with the warm, sweet satisfaction of kissing a puppy. And maybe even sex, which she'd yet to have.

Jess began ravenously scarfing down the food, eating like a pack of starving wolves. It was a beautiful taste, and each bite seemed better than the previous one. Jess paused eating the orange chicken and had a taste of noodle, which was a bit warm but very delicious.

…

One hour of unaware stuffing had passed, and Jess had finished with her dinner. Reality had yet to set in and unpack, but Jess had eaten a lot of food. She had unbuttoned her shirt during her triumphant devouring of the Rice people of China 7, and her fingers were totally greasy. Jess licked her fingers clean, and went to lower her hands onto her lap, but her large food baby got in the way. Jess screamed when she felt and saw this disgusting monster belly. In reality, it wouldn't look too bad, only about four or possibly five months pregnant, but to Jess, it could practically be crushing the ARC from her flat.

This was just crippling for Jess. As if her one-sided love for Captain Becker wasn't troublesome enough, she was now 30 pounds less unattractive. Jess climbed into bed and cried her eyes out. The fortune cookie was right; she was doomed, her crush would be crushed. Hopefully by morning, this problem would solve itself.

…

**Sorry, Jess, but it doesn't quite work like that.**

**It's quite obvious what will happen next, and I guess this is the time that I should address my recurring theme of fattening females. I honestly don't know. Is it because TV, games and other media always have the guys packing on the pounds? Is it because I view it as artistic, and unique, and (sexy), and just glorious in inconceivable ways? Or is it because I'm just pure f*cking weird? You be the judge, but be nice.**


End file.
